Article One, Section 8 of the United States Constitution gives Congress legislative authority over the capital federal district. The Home Rule Act gives the District of Columbia's local government broad authority over its own policies, but Congress still has the ultimate power and can block local legislation. Broadly, Congress has two ways to exercise that authority. Most commonly, it includes provisions in other legislation, like
appropriations bills, to dictate policies to block funding for them. The Home Rule Act also provides for an expedited disapproval procedure to block D.C. laws without the potential for a
Senate filibuster. Since the Home Rule Act's enactment, Congress has exercised this power several times. • In 1988, Congress voted to block D.C. from expending local funds to cover abortion services through
Medicaid. This was repealed in 2009 but then reinstated in 2011. • In 1996, the D.C. Council passed a clean needle exchange program law. However, in 1998, Congress voted to block the law. In 2007, Congress voted to lift the ban, thus allowing the law to go into effect. • In 1998, Congress voted to block
Initiative 59 –
Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative of 1998 – via the Barr amendment. This also caused the result of the referendum to be withheld. When this was challenged in court, it was determined that withholding the result of the referendum violated the
First Amendment. In response to this, another amendment was passed in 2000 that simply overturned Initiative 59. with the first medical marijuana sale occurring in 2013. • In 2014, Congress voted to block
Initiative 71 –
Legalization of Possession of Minimal Amounts of Marijuana for Personal Use Act of 2014 – by blocking funds from being used to enact laws, rules or regulations for reducing or legalizing any
Schedule I drug. However, since this was passed after the results of Initiative 71 had already been announced, it did not prevent the legalization of marijuana, but had the effect of leaving marijuana legal, but without the authority to expend funds on enacting regulations or taxation. Congress has successfully used the disapproval process in the Home Rule Act four times: • In 1979, lawmakers blocked the Location of Chanceries Amendment Act of 1979. The law sought to restrict where foreign
embassies could build
chanceries within the city. • In 1981, Congress overturned the Sexual Assault Reform Act of 1981. The act would have overhauled the city's
sexual assault laws, including by legalizing
homosexual acts and sodomy and allowing married women to press charges of rape against their husbands. Advocacy for congressional action was led by conservative Christian activists, including
Moral Majority. • In 1990, Congress blocked the Schedule of Heights Amendment Act of 1990. That law would have granted an exemption to the city's building height restrictions for a development in the
Penn Quarter neighborhood. • In 2023, Congress voted in favor of H.J.Res.26 to block the Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022. DC's Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022 would have re-worked criminal justice policies in the District of Columbia. It would have also eliminated mandatory minimum sentences for many crimes. It would have also reduced the maximum penalties for many crimes like burglary, carjacking, and robbery. == 2025 repeal proposal ==